Robson Green stared at it all in sheer disbelief from his seat in the St James's Park stands.

Even the guys who write his television series would not have dared have come up with a script like this because they would have been laughed out of court.

But the people who were laughing at St James's Park on Saturday were Newcastle United and their fantastic fans.

And who wore the biggest smile of all? None other than the man Robson Green worships - fellow Geordie and Newcastle skipper Alan Shearer.

Just what the Manchester United supporters were thinking of taunting Shearer I cannot imagine.

Do they really have such short memories? Two years ago Shearer scored twice as Manchester United, with Roy Keane red-carded, crashed to a 3-0 defeat at St James's Park.

And isn't Shearer the greatest scorer in the history of the Premiership?

Certainly, Shearer looked a more dangerous player than his Manchester United counterpart and former Newcastle favourite Andy Cole.

But this magnificent victory wasn't just about Alan Shearer. Craig Bellamy, Laurent Robert, Clarence Acuna, Robert Lee and Nicos Dabizas rose to the occasion - and the rest weren't that far behind.

Lee said on Friday that Newcastle would win providing every player in a black and white shirt was up to scratch. And they were.

In contrast, Sir Alex Ferguson should have been embarrassed by the performances of his French duo, keeper Fabien Barthez and veteran central defender Laurent Blanc, not to mention Cole.

The Reds boss should also be concerned that while his opposite number Bobby Robson got 90 minutes of hard slog and graft out of Newcastle, his team of mega-stars only put in a 20-minute shift when they fought back superbly from being 3-1 down to level things at 3-3.

At this stage it looked as though there was going to be one winner - and it wasn't Newcastle.

But you don't put together a

13-match unbeaten run without guts and character. And these are things Newcastle United have in abundance at the moment.

They also have two wingers in Nobby Solano and Laurent Robert who whip the ball across quickly and give defenders all sorts of problems as Manchester United's hapless back four found out to their cost on Saturday.

Robert got Newcastle up and running, of course, with his breathtaking free-kick in the fourth minute, and at this stage the Frenchman had amazingly been involved in all seven goals Newcastle had scored in the Premiership up to that point.

Cole's only contribution to the game saw Robson's protege Ruud van Nistelrooy equalise only for Blanc to fail to close Robert Lee down and Barthez fail even more miserably to save the midfielder's shot.

Not to be outdone by Robert, Nicos Dabizas scored in his second successive Premiership game and once again the Frenchman played a major part.

It wasn't until Ferguson substituted the disappointing Cole for Paul Scholes that Manchester United got going and they had Newcastle reeling with two goals in as many minutes from Ryan Giggs and Juan Sebastian Veron.

At this stage Newcastle could have been excused for hanging on for what would have been an honourable draw.

But they dug deep and Bellamy somehow found the strength to run 50 yards through the slow-moving and slow-thinking Manchester United defence in a move which resulted in Shearer's winner.

For me this match was even better than the one at Anfield when Newcastle were on the wrong end of that first 4-3 defeat by Liverpool. A match which is reckoned as the best ever in the Premiership.

The only pity is that the captain of Manchester United disgraced himself with yet another display of petulance which resulted in him being sent off for the second time in three visits to St James's Park.